The present invention is directed towards a coated staple and a staple gun or fastener driving or applying tool for driving such staples into surfaces.
Staple, nail, brad, screw and other fastener-driving applying tools for industrial, commercial and do-it-yourself (DIY) use are well known. Often such tools are used to secure cables, wires, tubing and the like to a substrate such as wood by driving the fastener into the substrate, the fastener thereby surrounding the cable, wire or tubing on three sides. However, the fastener being applied may at the time of application (due to the impact of the fastener) or subsequently (due to wire and/or substrate expansion or contraction over time) penetrate, damage or deform the item being fastened, resulting in an electrical short circuit, leak or other deleterious effect.
It is often desirable to secure wire or cable, including without limitation high speed transmission multimedia cable and wire (such as CAT-5 and RG6) and NM Building Wire (also known as “Romex” wire), to substrates using staples and so-called insulators. The use of these so-called insulators, which may also provide a cushioning function, minimizes the possibility that the staple will penetrate, damage or deform the sheathing on the wire and cause an electrical short or change in current. The use of pre-assembled individual staples and insulators, installed by means of a hammer or similar implement, is conventional. However, this method is slow, tedious, and not very precise.
Attempts to improve the efficiency and standardization of the current process have largely focused on use of hand powered cable tacker staplers to install collated and cohered pre-assemblies of staples and so-called insulators. Each individual assembly of a staple and insulator has tended to be similar in essential form to the hammer-applied assemblies now widely employed. These attempts have proved to be inadequate and unsuccessful because they either do not install the staple/insulator assemblies in a manner which meets industry requirements for staple holding power (such as those described in UL specifications) for a wide range of wire types and diameters used in typical residential and commercial construction, or the cable tacker staplers used require too much hand pressure or too broad a range of hand motion for the average user to comfortably operate them so that they install the assemblies in accordance with such industry requirements. In addition, the quantity of staples/insulators that fit in a typically sized magazine is small, resulting in frequent reloading. This type of staple/insulator assembly is also relatively expensive.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved insulated or coated fastener which helps minimize or eliminate the possibility that the fastener penetrates, damages or deforms the sheathing of the wire being fastened.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved fastener driving tool or gun that ensures consistent, uniform and reproducible driving depth of the fastener into the substrate.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a fastening device that automatically and repeatably drives insulated or coated fasteners to a predetermined depth into a substrate to secure an object therein.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a fastener gun driven insulated or coated fastener which is relatively less expensive than those currently in use.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a system of a fastening device and a more compact insulated or coated staple or fastener which requires less frequent reloading.